supports

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present tense of support.

   The local council supports the new housing project with annual funding.

   A single column supports the entire balcony at the front of the house.

   Note

   The -s ending marks agreement with a singular third-person subject: she supports, the column supports, the evidence supports. Every other present-tense person takes the bare form support. Every sense of the verb is transitive, whether it means holding up, backing, funding or lending credibility. Expect an object directly after it, as in supports the balcony, supports the team, supports the claim.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of support.

   Engineers inspected the steel supports holding up the highway overpass.

   The tent collapsed once two of its supports snapped in the wind.

   Note

   The plural belongs mainly to the countable, concrete senses: the beams, braces and props that bear weight. Help in the abstract usually stays uncountable, so a friend offers moral support, not supports. Mathematics keeps a countable use as well. Two functions can have different supports, meaning the sets of points where each is nonzero. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, and only the sentence tells them apart.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2